What Is Walder's? The Pareve Cream Liqueur for After a Meat Meal

Walder's is the bottle that comes out after the brisket. It is a cream liqueur that tastes like the ones you know from the dessert cart, but it is made on a non-dairy base and certified OU-Pareve — so it can go on the table after a meat meal, which a real cream liqueur never can. That one fact is why it turns up at so many Shabbos tables, kiddushes and simchas.

What it actually is

A cream liqueur is a spirit blended with cream, sugar and flavouring. The famous ones use dairy cream, which makes them dairy — fine after a milk meal, off limits for hours after meat. Walder's swaps the dairy cream for a non-dairy cream base. It pours thick and tan, it tastes rich and sweet, and it is pareve.

It sits at about 17 percent alcohol — roughly the strength of a strong wine, well under half the strength of the vodka or Scotch inside it. It is a sipping drink, not a shot.

The two flavours

• Walder's Vodka & Vanilla, 750ml, $25.99 — vodka, vanilla and the cream base. Tastes like melted vanilla ice cream with a warm edge. The sweeter and simpler of the two.
• Walder's Scotch & Coffee, 750ml, $25.99 — real Scotch whisky with coffee. Mocha, toffee and a faint touch of smoke. This is the one people mean when they call Walder's "the pareve Baileys."

Both also come in a small 200ml bottle at $14.99 — the Vodka & Vanilla mini and the Scotch & Coffee mini. That is a few small pours, which makes it a good hostess gift, a wedding favour, or a way to find out which flavour you like before you buy the big bottle. The whole range is on one page at Walder's.

Pareve or dairy: why it matters

If you keep kosher, the question with any cream liqueur is not "is it kosher" but "is it dairy." A dairy cream liqueur is a problem at exactly the moment you want one — after a fleishig Shabbos or Yom Tov meal.

Walder's is OU-Pareve on both flavours, so it follows meat with no waiting. Compare that with Lavie Coffee & Cream, 750ml, $29.99, a very good kosher cream liqueur that is dairy — the right bottle after a milk meal or with cheesecake, the wrong one after chicken. Keep one of each and you are covered at every meal.

If you want the coffee without any cream at all, a straight coffee liqueur like Misceo, 750ml, $32.99 is the other route. We explained the difference in what coffee liqueur is.

How to serve it

• Over ice. The standard. A couple of ounces over a few cubes, after dinner.
• From the freezer. At 17 percent it will not freeze solid, it just thickens. Poured into small glasses, it is a dessert on its own.
• In coffee. A splash of the Scotch & Coffee into hot coffee after a meat meal — pareve, so no milk needed.
• Over ice cream or in a dessert. Drizzle the Vanilla over pareve ice cream, or fold either one into a pareve chocolate mousse.
• With fruit juice. Dairy cream liqueurs tend to curdle when they meet anything sour. A non-dairy base holds up better, which is why the Vanilla gets mixed into fruity drinks that a dairy one would ruin. Try a small glass first before you make a pitcher.

Once opened, keep it in the fridge and finish it within a few months. It will not spoil overnight, but a cream liqueur tastes best while it is fresh.

Where it fits this season

Sukkos is a week of big meat meals, one after the other, eaten outside in the cold. That is exactly the setting Walder's was made for: something warm, sweet and pareve to pass around the sukkah when the plates are cleared. If you are putting together the rest of the table, start with wine for Sukkos and what to bring to a sukkah.

The short version

• Walder's is a cream liqueur with a non-dairy base — OU-Pareve, so it can follow meat.
• Two flavours: Vodka & Vanilla, and Scotch & Coffee. $25.99 for 750ml, $14.99 for 200ml.
• About 17 percent alcohol. Serve over ice, cold from the freezer, or in coffee.
• For after a dairy meal, Lavie is the dairy alternative. For everything else in the style, see the full liqueur shelf.